After her father’s untimely death, Jenna Ashby moves to Koush Hollow, a bayou town outside of New Orleans, dreading life with her wealthy mother. As the sixteen-year-old eco-warrior is introduced to the Diamonds & Pearls, her mother’s exclusive social club, she comes to the troubling realization that secrets are a way of life in Koush Hollow: How do the Diamonds & Pearls look so young, where does their money come from, and why is life along the bayou disappearing?
Welcome to one of the September 14th stops on the blog tour for Koush Hollow by Leigh Goff with Audiobookworm Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, audio excerpts, reviews, and more exclusive content!
Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.
About the Book
Koush Hollow
by Leigh Goff
Print/eBook
Published 25 August 2020
The Parliament House
Page Count: 308
Audiobook
Published 14 July 2021
The Parliament Hous
Narrator: Erin Seidel
Length: 8 hours and 7 minutes
Genre: YA Horror
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
After her father’s untimely death, Jenna Ashby moves to Koush Hollow, a bayou town outside of New Orleans, dreading life with her wealthy mother. As the 16-year-old eco-warrior is introduced to the Diamonds & Pearls, her mother’s exclusive social club, she comes to the troubling realization that secrets are a way of life in Koush Hollow: How do the Diamonds & Pearls look so young, where does their money come from, and why is life along the bayou disappearing? As Jenna is drawn into their seductive world, her curiosity and concerns beg her to uncover the truth. However, in this town where mysticism abounds and secrets are deadly, the truth is not what Jenna could have ever imagined.
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Audible
Try Audible for free!
My Review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads
I was granted complimentary audiobook access to Housh Hollow as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Audiobookworm Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Housh Hollow follows Jenna, a 16-year-old girl who’s forced to move home with her estranged mother following the death of her father, and things are getting strange. This town used to thrive around its lake-related industries, but pollution is killing everything excerpt the plant Jenna’s mother works for (and they swear they’re not the ones doing it.) Jenna’s mother is the leader of an elite socialite group in the town, the Diamonds, and Jenna finds herself being inducted into the junior chapter, the Pearls, against her will, and membership grants exclusive access to the services of witch women who seem to have completely different interests and wishes for Jenna. What’s going on?
Jenna’s full-circle transformation from alternative culture kid Jenna to socialite Jennifer and back again was particularly fun for me, as a Jennifer who goes by Jenna and has never felt the need to dress and impress with mainstream ideas of fashion. I also loved the mystery surrounding the witch women and Jenna’s cryptic “unknown” results on her DNA test for a high school history class. This town has so much going on, and it’s clear Jenna’s family is tangled up at the heart of it, but exactly what the truths are weren’t so easy to predict.
This book has a lot of mystery and thriller elements to it, and with a well-written 16-year-old protagonist it also feels very much like a YA paranormal fantasy novel. I was surprised when I returned to my blog tour documents to build the tour post and saw it’s actually filed under horror. Save for one somewhat gruesome scene near the end, I wouldn’t call this horror. (With that in mind, if you need to read a horror for some reason and don’t like truly scary horror, maybe this is the perfect option for you!)
I reviewed this book in audiobook format, so I must also comment on the narrative performance. Erin Seidel’s performance is spot-on, if you ask me. I truly bought her voice and pacing as teenaged, and it was very easy to follow along. I typically listen to audiobook at no less than 2x speed, and that was no problem with this book. I did hear a few brief snippets at 1x every time I returned to Audible, before resetting the speed to my preference, and it was definitely reasonable and not too unbearably slow, but if you normally listen to books faster then this is one to listen to at your usual speed.
About the Author
Leigh Goff is a young adult author with type 1 diabetes who is inspired by caffeine, enchanted spells, and unforgettable, star-crossed fates. She is the author of three published young adult novels, KOUSH HOLLOW, BEWITCHING HANNAH, and DISENCHANTED. She is also a member of SCBWI and a graduate from the University of Maryland. Although she’s terrible at casting any magic of her own, she is descended from accused witch, Elizabeth Duncan of Virginia, who went to trial in 1695.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads
Tour Schedule
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thank you for listening to the audiobook of Koush Hollow and writing a review. The time spent on this is truly appreciated!
Sounds interesting!